Brendan Ryan (Dublin North, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Each year, the traditional approach to this discussion between the committee, the Minister and the officials has focused on policy. As a committee, we have spoken about shifting the balance of the discussion towards performance in terms of outputs, measurements and so forth. What we are trying to get at is not so much what we are doing and what the policy decisions or choices are but, rather, how well the Department is using the money allocated. We have been briefed on the general shortfalls in terms of how the Oireachtas, as a whole, and its committees - not just this committee - have been performing and there are some gaps that need to be addressed. It seems that the New Zealand guidance is the standard which has been accepted as getting close to best practice in terms of how this might be done.

It is not so much about the policies that were applied in New Zealand in the past. It is like an ISO standard; the New Zealand guidance is there as something we should aspire to and begin to work towards.

I would ask the Department officials - not so much the Minister - whether they accept that the New Zealand guidance is best practice and is something we should try to improve on. While the Department has a number of issues with how the guidance is being applied to performance measures included in the Estimate, is it accepted that the New Zealand guidance should be our starting point? Have the officials any serious issues with the guidance itself?